The sex industry is an endless source of prurient drama for the mainstream media. Recent years have seen a panic over “online red light districts,” which supposedly seduce vulnerable young women into a life of degradation. But rarely do these fearful, dispatches come from sex workers themselves, and rarely do they deviate from the position that sex workers must be rescued from their condition, and the industry simply abolished — a position common among feminists and conservatives alike.

In Playing the Whore, journalist Melissa Gira Grant turns these on their head, arguing for an overhaul in the way we think about sex work. She dismantles pervasive myths about sex work, criticises both conditions within the sex industry and its criminalisation, and argues that separating sex work from the “legitimate” economy only harms those who perform sexual labor. Melissa argues that sex work is work, and sex workers’ rights are human rights.

Join her at Bristol Festival of Ideas for an evening of debate on this issue.